A jar of love in the post

Last week I received a jar of love in the post! Yay!

Rae sent me this wonderful package:

How cute is that! I love the red packing strips.

Inside was:

It's a jar of marshmallow fluff! So cute! Rae had stuffed the jar with toy stuffing. When I pulled it out I discovered all kinds of wonderful goodies.

I especially love the ring you can just see on the top right. 

Thank you Rae! I love it all!

The great big stitched postcard swap

I joined the do what you love great big stitched postcard swap. The theme was 'Discover'. Above is the postcard I sent my swap partner in the U.S.A. You can't see it too well in this photo but I stitched around the M25 circular and sewed on beads for each place name within London. I made the map in a similar way to my mixed media book cover. But with more pastels.

This is what she sent me:

Very cute and lots of fun.

TLC Bird Swap

So I started my own swap a few months back in the TLC Coffeehouse. It was a bird swap. That was it. Nice and simple.

Above is what I sent to my swap partner. It's a pigeon portrait! I got the outline pattern from the very kind Lismer Photography who had offered the silhouette on their blog. Thank you kind sharer.

I was a little late sending this off. I hope my swap partner likes it and wasn't too put out at the delay. 

A heavy jar of love

In amongst my swapping frenzy I signed up to Booty-full Things' Jar of Love Swap.

This was a really fun swap. We were to select a jar, decorate it and then fill it with whatever we wanted to give our swap partner. I was matched with the lovely Rae from Felt By Rae.

First I selected my jar:

I decorated it:

I crocheted a cover for the jar, embroidered a felt flower and then glued it to the lid. Muha.

Then I stuffed the jar with goodies, made a card and sent it off. 

There was a competition for how many things you stuffed into the jar. I did count but I failed to write down the number. Oopsie. Oh well, won't be entering THAT competition then.

I hope Rae liked all the things. Decorating jars is fun! Luckily I have a whole cupboard full of them.

Popular Crafts Polka Dot Swap

Yet another swap. Huzah! This one was hosted by the website 'Popular Crafts'. It was a polka dot swap. That was basically the only condition. I love polka dots so eagerly signed up to it.

I was matched with the lovely Carla at The Ducking Fabulous Diary. We had until the end of July to send off our things so I haven't received a package yet but thought I'd share what I sent off to Carla - now that I know she's gotten them. This is what I sent:

Dotty about ducks

As Carla's blog mentions ducks in the title plus she has a wee duck in her banner I thought she might appreciate a duck portrait. A dotty one, of course. Plus when I found this fabulous purse I knew I also had to include it in her package.

Oh, I also made a card:

I'm really getting into making teacup cards.

It seems all this was well received so hooray!

x

The Great British Swap

As has been previously recorded I signed up to a lot of swaps last month. I got a wee bit over-excited. I've almost finished and sent them all off.

Hookin' with LaaLaa organised a Great British Swap. I got linked up with the lovely Kate from Granny Taught Me To Crochet.

This is what she sent me:

Squee! She made me a needle case and a little hanging bird. I said I liked birds (which I do) so it was super sweet of her to make me this. I've named him Edwin and he's hanging on my bookcase. It felt like my birthday opening all the things. I especially love the little tin.

This is what I sent her:

I made her a union jack badge and a coaster with a telephone box on it. The telephone box didn't come out as well as I'd hoped. Sorry Kate. I was quite pleased with the card I made though. 

Swaps are fun.

House of Pinheiro Swap

As previously mentioned I took part in House of Pinheiro's Pincushion swap this month.

The lovely Katie from Booty-Full Things sent me the following:

I feel super-lucky to have been paired up with Katie. She sent me a beautiful hand-made crocheted strawberry pincushion, an embroidered card, a sewing set AND pins! I was actually ridiculously pleased with the pins. I've been in semi-desperate need for pins for ages (the only ones I had are lace pins, which get easily lost in things that are not lace).

Thank you Katie!

Her blog is full of equally wondrous crocheted goodies - I recommend going to read it. She's also currently hosting a jar swap. I'm taking part, you should too.

Also world, if you're into swaps - don't forget to enter my bird swap over at Tre La Creativity.

Making a pincusion

I've recently discovered craft swapping and have decided to launch myself into it. Mainly because I love getting post, love making things and love a challenge. Swaps involve all of those things. Swoon.

So when I heard about House of Pinheiro's pincushion swap I signed right up!

Having received my swap partner I went and stalked her blog and started sketching ideas. I decided that it should be summery, and made of felt (of course). Felt sharpens needles so is in fact the perfect material for making a pincushion.

I decided to make a felt watermelon pincushion.

I assembled my ingredients:

Pincushion ingredients

I cut out my shape and started to piece it together. I decided that black beads would make good pips.

I folded the halves together and stitched in up with blanket stitch, pausing to stuff it with fluff and rice. 

The finished pincushion, avec pins.

Creative swap = post and exciting item

When I was thirteen I got heavily into pen-palling. My school had set up a pen-pal exchange with a school in Sweden and we all got given random letters. Mine was from a girl called Viktoria. It was very exciting to hear about a whole different type of life. In many ways she was the same as me, a typical 13 year old girl, but her day to day life was intriguingly foreign. That was it. I was totally hooked.

For the next four years I wrote religiously to a variety of pen-pals from all over the world. Every day after school the FIRST thing I would do was check the mat by the front door for post. And every time there was a letter I was rewarded with a fuzzy warmth in my belly. Oh, those letters were magical. I still have every single one in a box in my parents attic. And I still check for post every day - hope crisp in my mouth. It's a habit I'll probably have forever. Although these days, sadly, I don't get so many letters. Everyone is busy, no-one has the time or energy quite like a thirteen year old girl for writing letters.

One of the most exciting things my pen-palling introduced me to was the concept of swaps. This is where everyone signs up to swap things with each other. In those days it was mainly pictures of bands we loved with "I love you" written all over it in pink glitter pen. Or stickers. Man we loved stickers.

So imagine my excitement at seeing a 'Swap' section in the TLC Coffeehouse! It was empty though. Bereft of swaps. Only one way to fix that! I started my very own first swap. You can see it here.

It has the theme of 'birds' and is very easy. Basically you sign up, make something (could be a drawing, a model, a story, some music, a puppet, a badge, a button, a poem, a bead, some printed fabric - anything), and then post it to where I tell you to. And you'll get something amazing, beautiful and unique in return. Brilliant?

Come join us! The more the merrier! Exciting post is guaranteed!